02 May 2012
...Rowing is the only sport where competitors cross the finish line backwards?
...There are nine different disciplines in gymnastics?
...Boxers from Belfast have won more medals than any other area in Ireland at the Olympic Games.
...The story behind Wenlock and Mandeville, official London 2012 mascots?
London promised to connect young people with the power of the Games and in doing so inspire them to choose sport. The story of the creation of the mascots is that ‘Grandpa George’ sculpted two figures from the last two drops of steel used for making the Olympic Stadium and giving them to his grandchildren.
Brought to life by a rainbow, Wenlock and Mandeville learn from and copy the children, try sport inspired by the posters on their wall and then head off on their adventures. The name Wenlock is inspired by Much Wenlock, a small town in Shropshire visited by Baron Pierre de Coubertin in 1890. In his diaries he details how the people of Much Wenlock helped inspire him to create the Olympic Movement whose Values still hold strong in today’s world. The name Mandeville is inspired by Stoke Mandeville, the Buckinghamshire town where the Paralympic Movement was founded.
Mascot photo Caption - Tom Fletcher, lead singer and guitarist of pop rock band McFly wrote and then recorded ‘On a Rainbow’ the mascot theme song alongside his sister Carrie Fletcher.